Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Its raining gumdrops…

Or something like that.Almost 2 weeks to the hour, I finished my gumdrop socks.

I experimented with the heel shaping, and while its not perfect, it does hold possibilities.To begin: the gusset is simple reversed.After turning the heel, I counted out 30 stitches (½ of the total) and placed markers.I started the gusset at this point. (Next time, I will start the gusset at the base of the flap!)I worked the gusset in reverse, sloping it towards the instep.At some point, the total stitch count was approaching original stitch count (60stitches total) Then I started to increase in center of underside of the sock (sole) (2 stitches every other row) At the same time I continued to decrease 2 stitches every other row (normal gusset.)see the details here.

Stop and ThinkIf you’ve ever knit a pattern (feather and fan, chevrons of any sort, old shale) you know,INCREASES tend to make your knitting curve outward or upward. And decreases do the opposite, curving the stitches downward or inward.The same thing happened on the sock.. The underside (sole) had upward (it seemed longer) curve, and the instep (where the line of decreases of the gusset extended) began had in a downward curve.. (and the knitting seemed shorter)Now, if like me, you regularly try socks in progress on to check the fit. You know that normally, no matter what heel you use, the underside of the sock always seems shorter that the upper (instep side)the red line indicates how a sock with a conventional gusset tends to fit (an inch or so into foot)

Wait.. That might not be true for you unless you have a high instep. (I do!)Well the pattern of increases at sole and decreases at instep resulted in the lower part of the sock looking longer on the needles, but fitting perfectly on the foot.Some thing like the blue line.

Well, actually not perfectly, but much better than a normally shaped gusset does.A second feature of this shaping is; eventually you stop. And for some rows after, there is a bit of bulge. This could be a defect, but since I have duck feet, (narrow heel, very wide at ball of foot) the bulge created a bit of ease just where it was needed!The sock fits tight on instep and arch, and then it fits tight on the ball of the foot, too!

The toe is a square toe.. (an inverted French/flat toe) it seemed like the thing to do, to have an inverted toe with an inverted gusset.

I am going to continue to experiment with inverted gussets and shaped soles and insteps. Not in my very next pair, but soon.